The Federal Government has hailed the appointment of Mr Bayo Ogunlesi by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as an economic adviser, saying the decision is a smart move.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, told the News Agency of Nigeria in New York that Ogunlesi is an outstanding professional who has accomplished a lot.

“He (Trump) is very wise to have appointed Bayo because Bayo is really an outstanding person professionally and really, I think in many ways.

“It is almost paradoxical that we in the country will certainly need people with the calibre of Bayo Ogunlesi and that it should be the U.S. rather, that is now going to be benefiting from his amazing talents.

“But I think the U.S. can only benefit from somebody of Bayo’s talent,” he said.

Notwithstanding the misgivings of some people about the policies of Trump’s administration concerning Africa and Nigeria in particular, Onyeama hoped that Nigeria would have a cordial diplomatic relationship with Trump’s administrations.

“We are looking also optimistically to working with the new U.S. (President-elect Donald Trump’s) administration.

“We hope that we would be able to find common course. At the moment, we have very good relations, this particular (President Barack Obama’s) administration has been extremely supportive of Nigerian’s policies.

“And we would like to build on that with the incoming administration,” he said.

The minister also expressed the hope that with the presence of Ogunlesi in Trump’s team, he could be able to bring positive policies about Nigeria and Africa to bear on Trump’s administration.

“And who knows, maybe the presence of Bayo in the team in the U.S. might hopefully be able to bring to the administration positive perspectives with regards to Nigeria,” he said.

I hate to have regrets. God perhaps knows why we have the kind of leaders we have today. You guys knew that Ogunlesi exists and very good to the extent that US will appoint him, but nobody recommended him. All we have in political and strategic offices are scraps. So so annoying. Which office will you mention and which one will you not? very irritating.

Hypocrite! President Trump has now brought. Mr. Ogunlesi into limelight, now, Nigerian government sees it as a smart choice? Did the Federal Government knew the existence of the gentleman before now? Mr. Minister should stop fooling himself. This kind of statement is a dead diplomacy.